Promotion of International Cooperation to Combat Illicit Financial Flows and Strengthen Good Practices on Assets Return to Foster Sustainable Development

A/RES/78/140View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 16f Promotion of international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets return to foster sustainable development, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

8 versions · 2018–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/126

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/126	Promotion of international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets return to foster sustainable development	5,359	76%Compare
2024	A/RES/79/234	Promotion of international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets return to foster sustainable development	5,122	88%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/140	Promotion of international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets return to foster sustainable development	4,717	93%Compare
2022	A/RES/77/154	Promotion of international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets return to foster sustainable development	4,505	51%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/196	Promotion of international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets return to foster sustainable development	3,470	83%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

5 reports · 2022–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/81/269	International coordination and cooperation to combat illicit financial flows report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/80/126
2025	A/80/224	International coordination and cooperation to combat illicit financial flows report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/79/234
2024	A/79/186	International coordination and cooperation to combat illicit financial flows report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/140
2023	A/78/186	International coordination and cooperation to combat illicit financial flows report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/77/154
2022	A/77/304	International coordination and cooperation to combat illicit financial flows report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/196

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Crime Prevention Criminal Assets Illicit Funds Transfer International Cooperation Sustainable Development

What’s in this document?

43 operative paragraphs

Acknowledges that combating illicit financial flows contributes to domestic resource mobilization, which is essential to finance policies aiming to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals;

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General;⁸

⁸A/78/186.

Reiterates its commitment to financial integrity for sustainable development, through national efforts and international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and promote good practices on assets return to foster sustainable development, including through existing relevant international frameworks, such as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, while noting the ongoing work of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the Group of 20;

Reaffirms its commitment to strive to eliminate safe havens that create incentives for the transfer abroad of stolen assets and illicit financial flows;

Also reaffirms its commitment to strengthen regulatory frameworks at all levels in accordance with international standards and to further increase the transparency and accountability of financial institutions and the corporate sector, as well as public administrations;

Takes note of the work of the media in exposing corruption, tax abuse and the failings of financial integrity regulations and controls;

Welcomes the ongoing efforts of Member States to enhance knowledge and broaden understanding of the challenges and opportunities involved in international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets recovery and return consistent with the United Nations Convention against Corruption so as to foster sustainable development;

Acknowledges that combating illicit financial flows requires a range of actions that includes deterring, detecting, preventing and countering such flows in source, transit and destination countries and expeditious law enforcement action and cooperation;

Also acknowledges the need to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets return and recovery as one of the sources of financing for development in a broad range of areas, such as poverty eradication, food security, health, education, investment in social programmes or adaptation to climate change, and may contribute to improved sustainable development outcomes;

Recognizes that combating illicit financial flows requires a coordinated, whole-of-government approach and therefore encourages Member States to create domestic institutional mechanisms as appropriate and necessary, including those related to digitalization or other appropriate measures to ensure information-sharing and whole-of-government coordination, in this regard invites those Member States willing to prepare integrated national financing frameworks to include plans for combating illicit financial flows, including through the transfer and sharing of data, where appropriate, and with the necessary safeguards, and looks forward to the formulation by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Financing for Development of guidance on how countries can incorporate financial integrity actions into their financing frameworks;

Notes that international cooperation in combating illicit financial flows is a work in progress that must continue to be pursued, and encourages all countries to develop effective tools and create a policy environment for combating illicit financial flows, in accordance with the existing relevant international frameworks, including the United Nations Convention against Corruption;

Recognizes that measures aimed at combating illicit financial flows often require cross-border cooperation between law enforcement agencies and that, where requested, technical assistance can also contribute to better international cooperation, and encourages Member States, where applicable and subject to their domestic legal systems, and in line with their treaty obligations, to cooperate and exchange information and best practices in this regard;

Encourages countries and relevant multilateral and international organizations to continue and strengthen their efforts to provide, upon request, technical assistance and capacity-building assistance to developing countries, as well as to support African and other regional initiatives, to prevent, detect and combat illicit financial flows and to strengthen good practices on assets recovery and return to foster sustainable development in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;⁹

⁹Resolution 70/1.

Urges Member States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying or acceding to the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto,¹⁰ and urges States parties to those Conventions and Protocols to make efforts towards their effective implementation;

¹⁰United Nations, Treaty Series, vols. 2225, 2237, 2241 and 2326, No. 39574.

Reaffirms the need for Member States to effectively implement and enforce all existing obligations under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, as a critical part of combating illicit financial flows;

Urges Member States to increase their efforts to prevent and counter corruption that involves vast quantities of assets and related illicit financial flows, noting that no country alone can effectively combat complex cases involving multiple jurisdictions and that international cooperation and technical assistance are needed in the prevention of and fight against corruption, including in asset recovery;

Stresses that anti-corruption measures should be an integral part of national development policies and strategies and therefore invites countries developing integrated national financing frameworks to include anti-corruption components and standards therein, as appropriate, further stresses that all jurisdictions should consider undertaking further research, policy development and programming, as appropriate, to address corruption, and decides to deter, detect, prevent and counter corruption, increase transparency and promote good governance;

Encourages closer public-private sector collaboration to better tackle corruption, and stresses that further research, policy development and programming should help in reaching this goal;

Notes with concern that proceeds derived from offences established under the United Nations Convention against Corruption have yet to be disposed of in favour of the requesting States parties, their prior legitimate owners and victims of the crimes, and decides to deter, detect, prevent and counter corruption, increase transparency and promote good governance;

Encourages States parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption to make full use of the asset recovery tools set forth in chapter V of the Convention, including mechanisms for the enforcement of foreign restraining and confiscation orders;

Calls upon all States parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, in particular requesting and requested States parties, to cooperate to recover the proceeds of crime as defined in the Convention, and to fulfil their obligation to ensure the return or disposal of such proceeds, in accordance with article 57 of the Convention, and invites States parties, in accordance with their respective domestic laws, to consider allocating recovered resources to finance the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and to strengthening the implementation of existing multilateral legal instruments for the purpose of asset recovery and return;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in coordination with the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, to continue to expand global knowledge and data collection on asset recovery and return by gathering and sharing information on challenges and good practices, as well as on volumes of assets frozen, seized, confiscated and returned in relation to corruption offences, and the number and types of cases, as appropriate, while ensuring the protection of personal data and privacy rights, drawing upon existing efforts, within existing resources;¹¹

¹¹CAC/COSP/2021/17, sect I.A, resolution 9/2, para. 15.

Stresses that efforts in international tax cooperation should be universal in approach and scope and fully take into account the different needs and capacities of all countries, in particular the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing States and African countries;

Encourages further efforts by relevant national and international actors to mitigate transfer pricing not in line with the arm’s length principle and trade misinvoicing;

Calls upon all countries to work together to eliminate base erosion and profit shifting and to ensure that all companies, including multinationals, pay taxes to the Governments of countries where economic activity occurs and value is created, in accordance with national and international laws and policies;

Also calls upon all countries to cooperate, in accordance with applicable bilateral or multilateral agreements, in the areas of mutual legal assistance, administrative assistance and the exchange of information in tax matters, as well as the automatic exchange of financial account information;

Invites signatories to bilateral or multilateral tax transparency agreements to consider allowing information exchanged pursuant to those agreements to be used where permitted under such agreements and when written consent is provided, having regard to confidentiality and domestic law limitations;

Invites the Economic and Social Council to update and strengthen the United Nations code of conduct on cooperation in combating international tax evasion¹² in response to new international agreements and to emphasize the importance of developing countries being able to benefit from international tax cooperation;

¹²Economic and Social Council resolution 2017/3.

Recognizes the importance of the consideration of international tax cooperation at the United Nations, in that regard takes note with appreciation of the work of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, and invites the Economic and Social Council to explore options to strengthen the role of the Committee while giving due consideration to the need that efforts in international tax cooperation should be universal in approach and scope;

Takes note of the ongoing work on the implementation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Group of 20 two-pillar solution to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy, acknowledges the need for a careful analysis of the implications for developing countries, and encourages a special focus on their unique needs and capacities;

Recalls the analysis, in the Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2022, the Trade and Development Report 2021 of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and World Economic Situation and Prospects 2022 of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat, of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Group of 20 two-pillar solution, and calls for inclusive discussions to address the uncertainties and implications for developing countries, including their capacity-building needs;

Also recalls that new technologies can both increase efficiency in revenue collection and strengthen the efforts to combat illicit financial flows, expresses concern that virtual assets are being used for illicit activities, and in this regard encourages Member States and other relevant organizations to take measures in line with international standards, where applicable, to prevent and counter their illicit use;

Notes that various jurisdictions have introduced mechanisms to increase beneficial ownership transparency, including beneficial ownership registries of legal entities and legal arrangements, such as companies, trusts and limited liability partnerships, encourages all jurisdictions to consider establishing appropriate mechanisms through either a registry of beneficial ownership or an alternative mechanism, in line with domestic law and applicable international standards, and encourages Member States to facilitate the timely availability of adequate, accurate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information;

Also notes that a wide variety of individuals and entities are involved in the transactions that comprise an illicit financial flow, recognizes the need to consider appropriate business regulatory policies, taking into account national circumstances, and in this regard reiterates the invitation to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to jointly prepare a global mapping of existing standards and guidelines, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, taking into account national circumstances, and to submit these to the Economic and Social Council for intergovernmental discussion;

Recognizes the significant progress and availability of concepts and tested methods to measure illicit financial flows, notes the outcomes of pilot studies across three continents showing that measurement of these flows is possible, while challenging, and requires strengthened support, and calls for increased transparency and the strengthening of efforts to enhance the capacity of national authorities for data collection and analysis to combat illicit financial flows with more informed and targeted policy efforts, emphasizing the need to strengthen national capacity to measure illicit financial flows in the context of the 2030 Agenda and increase the exchange of data within national government institutions as well as from international institutions;

Invites the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development as custodian agencies of Sustainable Development Goal indicator 16.4.1 on the total value of inward and outward illicit financial flows, in consultation with other institutions, to leverage and continue developing concepts and refine methods developed to date and to provide stronger support to national authorities, and invites all Member States to engage with the custodian agencies towards reporting data on the indicator;

Invites all institutions involved in measuring and reporting on illicit financial flows to use the statistical concepts and methods to estimate illicit financial flows, encourages all Member States to report on Sustainable Development Goal indicator 16.4.1, using the methodology adopted by the Statistical Commission, and calls upon the United Nations system entities, international organizations and donors to work in coordination with the custodian agencies to train national statistical offices and other entities in charge of reporting on illicit financial flows on these agreed methods;

Invites the President of the General Assembly, the President of the Economic and Social Council, the Secretary-General and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to give appropriate consideration to the importance of combating illicit financial flows and strengthening good practices on asset return to foster sustainable development, calls upon the relevant organizations of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates and resources, to continue their consideration of the negative impact of illicit financial flows on financing the 2030 Agenda based on its indicator 16.4.1 and to coordinate their efforts to further explore policy responses to the phenomenon, and in this regard invites all other relevant international institutions to support these efforts, in accordance with their respective mandates;

Reaffirms the commitment at the very heart of the 2030 Agenda to leave no one behind and commit to taking more tangible steps to support people in vulnerable situations and the most vulnerable countries and to reach the furthest behind first;

Calls upon the Economic and Social Council and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to enhance, within existing mandates, policy recommendations for combating illicit financial flows, involving all the relevant institutions and using existing bodies, to review progress on financial integrity issues, to scale up efforts to provide data on indicator 16.4.1, as well as to foster the implementation of existing intergovernmental agreements to address illicit financial flows;

Looks forward to the inclusion, in the 2024 report of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Financing for Development, of an analysis of international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets recovery and return to foster sustainable development, pursuant to the mandate of the Task Force, and also looks forward to the deliberations of the Economic and Social Council forum on financing for development follow-up on efforts to combat illicit financial flows;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session a report, within existing resources, in relation to progress made on combating illicit financial flows and the implementation of assets return and recovery based on existing mechanisms, and to elaborate on strengthening international coordination in this regard, and requests the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to inform the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session about the implementation of the present resolution, through a dedicated section of the Sustainable Development Goals Pulse report, to be introduced to the Second Committee by the Secretariat, elaborating in particular on the progress in testing, refining and applying the methodology to report on indicator 16.4.1, and the need to combat illicit financial flows and recover and return stolen assets in line with commitments contained in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development¹³ and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic;

¹³Resolution 69/313, annex.

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-ninth session, under the item entitled “Macroeconomic policy questions”, the sub-item entitled “Promotion of international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen good practices on assets return to foster sustainable development”.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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